BALTIMORE – This time, they don’t need a miracle. Just a semblance of consistency.
This time, the Cleveland Guardians aren’t 15 ½ games out of first place 90 games into the season, or 12 ½ back on Aug. 25, or 11 out on Sept. 4 before a stunning 19-4 finish claimed the American League Central title on the final day of the season.
Yet so much is similar.
These Guardians entered play Wednesday, Sept. 9 with a 74-72 – nearly identical to the 74-71 mark they sported one year ago. A youthful core somehow marching through its third September playoff run is showing an even younger group of newcomers the pennant-stretch ropes, a Guards Ball tradition, if you will.
And, thanks to the weird and chaotic and, some might say, feeble state of the American League this season, the Guardians are already in playoff position, holding a one-game lead for the No. 3 wild card with 14 to play; they’re also just two games behind the Chicago White Sox for the division lead.
But the Guardians need not apologize for anything.
They are fighting for their third consecutive playoff berth in as many years under Stephen Vogt, who may not three-peat as AL Manager of the Year. Then again, the club he’s nurtured seems to get more strident with each passing year.
“This group knows how to come up clutch when they need to. This group knows how to play with its back against the wall,” says Vogt. “We have the same exact record as a year ago. But this time, we’re in it. We’re not nine games back. We can control our own destiny.
“The experience of having to win every night and needing someone to lose every night – now we know it’s in our control. So we’re going out and relaxing and playing and I’m really proud of these guys.”
Oh, it’s not easy. A couple hours after Vogt’s musings, starter Foster Griffin retired the first six batters he faced – then was peppered for eight hits and eight runs in the third inning of a 9-5 loss to Baltimore.
Gone was a chance to build their wild-card lead to two games over Toronto and 2 ½ over Texas and five over the Orioles. Then again, it wouldn’t be September in Cleveland without the Cardiac Guards.
Paying it forward
Cleveland’s insistence on doing business like a small-market club and its penchant for excellent scouting and pitching development creates the impression that the club will always skew young.
But these guys have more than a few stripes on their uniform.
The Guardians advanced all the way to the 2024 ALCS, taking the Yankees to five games before Juan Soto abruptly sent them home for the winter. Four regulars on that team – leadoff batter Steven Kwan, third baseman and potential Hall of Famer Jose Ramírez and part-time DH David Fry – hold similar roles on this team, as do reserve infielder Daniel Scheeneman and backup catcher Austin Hedges.
Starting pitchers Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams and Joey Cantillo were Guardians then, and far more prominent now. And after Emmanuel Clase’s ignominious departure, the bullpen’s holy trinity of Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Tim Herrin are intact.
Smith and Williams, in particular, are some dudes.
One year after leading the majors in walks, Williams now tops the AL with 228 strikeouts, doubling his strikeout-walk ratio from 2.08 to 4.30. Smith, 27, has converted 35 of 40 save chances, strikes out 13 batters per nine innings and nearly 36% of batters he faces.
He debuted on Opening Day in 2024 and by October was pitching in the highest-leverage situations. Now, it is Smith who guides the bullpen.
“The opportunities I have to share things I’ve experienced with guys who are younger than me, I will gladly do it,” says Smith, who made his first All-Star team this season. “That’s what makes us special. We can share things that we’ve learned without the young guys having to go through the difficult experiences of learning it themselves.”
Seems like everyone’s listening down in the bullpen. The unit ranks third in the AL with a 3.61 ERA and No. 1 in the majors with 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings. They are responding to the September pressure, posting a 1.83 ERA over 44 innings this month, the best mark in baseball.
They, too, are benefiting from 2025’s September to remember.
“Every game was do-or-die,” says Smith. “There was a decision that we’d finish strong and see what could happen over the next six weeks and what kind of position we would be in, knowing that if we did our job and played our game and finished strong, we could be content with the outcome.
“To be able to go through that experience as a group, to rally together and make the push, make the comeback and make it into the playoffs – that’s the most valuable experience.”
A devilish fastball
It certainly was for Parker Messick.
The left-hander was summoned to Cleveland for his debut on Aug. 20, 2025. The club lost its sixth consecutive game that night, falling 12 ½ games behind the Detroit Tigers.
They’d go 24-8 after that. And Messick, who made seven starts down the stretch, got a quick lesson in the valleys and, yes, the peaks in this game.
“It was an incredible experience,” says Messick, now 25. “To be on that run we were on last year as a team - I got the taste of what it feels like to be in a locker room on a losing streak right away and what it feels like to heat up.
“You take those experiences with you. Winning’s way more fun. An incredible way to start my career, honestly. To go on that run and reach the playoffs. I got to prove to myself that my stuff played at the big league level.”
Now, he dominates.
Messick’s fastball has a run value of 34, ranking in the 99th percentile in the major leagues, according to Baseball Savant. He has a 2.53 ERA, an adjusted mark of 161 and leads all Guardians with 5.4 WAR.
“I feel like I was prepared last year to come in and do my job. This year was just, proving to myself I could do it,” he says. “Just thank the Lord, just try to honor him in all I do and I feel like he’s helped me out in that regard.”
'The expectation is we're going to win'
There’s no shortage of helping hands within the Guardians clubhouse. Backup catcher Hedges remains the bulwark of clubhouse chemistry, and he’s batting a career-best .253, to boot, as he chases his fifth consecutive postseason appearance.
Kwan, the subject of trade rumors the past couple years, is batting .351 in the second half and along with Ramírez remains the exemplar for professionalism.
Meanwhile, they just keep getting younger behind them.
Travis Bazzana, the No. 1 overall pick in 2024, debuted on April 28 and, while riding the ups and downs of a rookie hitter, provides more than frequent explosiveness via his speed and power.
The second baseman has 32 extra-base hits in 108 games and 18 steals while keeping his .735 OPS above league average and his head on a swivel.
“I look to him to learn,” Bazzana, 24, says of the 29-year-old Kwan. “I feel like I’m still learning. But just trying to be the most consistent version of myself mentally. I’ve had my ups and downs throughout the season – everybody does – but just learning how to flush things quicker.
“Be back to the best competitor I can be the next at-bat or the next day when things aren’t going my way.”
Bazzana, an Oregon State product, is running his first pennant race. Though he wasn’t around for the 2025 comeback bacchanalia, he need only look around the dugout and clubhouse to know what’s going on.
“It’s the kind of baseball you’ve always wanted to be a part of and play for,” says Bazzana. “The feeling inside the dugout to make it happen: Everyone knows what time of year it is. I think it’s a spark where we feel like we’re making the most of it right now.”
Says veteran DH Nathaniel Lowe: “I don’t think there’s anybody in this room that feels we’re incapable of doing it. And the collective is, we’re just going to stay positive and keep going.”
That’s kind of their whole thing, even as they grow older yet add youth and accrue pressure experiences. Who knows where it will lead this season?
At the moment, that would be the playoffs. Even if the route’s a little more linear this tie.
“We’re built with two veterans and a bunch of in-betweens and some rookies,” says Vogt. “The common denominator, the leadership group in this clubhouse, the expectation is we’re going to win.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cleveland Guardians have 'do-or-die' pedigree with MLB playoffs in in sight
